Thursday, 31 March 2022 07:24 UTC
What an eventful few days we are having. Solar flares, coronal mass ejections and now even geomagnetic storming! Indeed, the coronal mass ejections from the M-class event arrived around 01:45 UTC today which was very much in line with the predictions. Well done NOAA! Geomagnetic storm conditions up to the minor G1 geomagnetic storm levels have been observed thus far. The solar wind speed is decent near 600km/s but the strength of the interplanetary field is below what you'd expect for stronger storm conditions. That said, we will continue to be under the influence of the effects of this coronal mass ejection in the coming hours so keep an eye on the data to see how the situation unfolds.
However, we have yet another coronal mass ejection inbound. Sunspot region 2975 produced an X1 solar flare yesterday which indeed launch a coronal mass ejection into space. The appearance of this coronal mass ejection is very similar of that coronal mass ejection launched by the M4 solar flare. We see yet again an asymmetrical full halo coronal mass ejection with a majority of the ejecta heading towards the west. There is however no doubt that this cloud does indeed have an earth-directed component.
An impact is to be expected on Saturday, 2 April but a more precise forecast has yet to be made. There are also no official predictions yet for what kind of storm conditions to expect but up to the moderate G2 geomagnetic storm conditions should very much be possible.
Here is a look at the coronal mass ejection launched by yesterday's X1 solar flare. We see an asymmetrical full halo coronal mass ejection that is likely to arrive at Earth this Saturday, 2 April. pic.twitter.com/8Bn3ntBVMl
— SpaceWeatherLive (@_SpaceWeather_) March 31, 2022
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